Green II

A Three Colors Celebration!

Today marks the arrival of a pretty big home video release for many film fans: the Criterion Collection Blu-ray and DVD sets of Krzysztof Kieślowski's fabulous Three Colors trilogy. The good folks over at thesubstream.com asked me to help them talk about the set for their DVD/Blu-ray Shed feature - check out my brief blurb here (presented along with links to my Row Three reviews for each of the three films - thanks guys!).

And to help get you further in the mood to re-visit these great films, I've included below the cool Three Reasons videos put out by Criterion to help promote this release:

Green

Mirror

Tangled Morning IV

Tangled Morning III

Tangled Morning II

Tangled Morning I

Help Support the 4th Shinsedai Cinema Festival!

Hello, all. This past July, the Shinsedai Cinema Festival was held for the third time in Toronto at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, showcasing an impressive array of independent short and feature films from Japan's independent film community. Next year will mark a new chapter in the fest's still-young history, as it will be moving to a brand new venue in the city: the Revue Cinema. With this change, however, comes some new financial responsibilities for the festival's organizers, leading them to branch out to the greater online community for help.

Thus, they have begun a fundraising campaign at IndieGoGo to help cover the costs of transporting and accommodating the Japanese filmmakers who will be arriving from overseas to promote their film and enjoy the festival. The goal is to raise $7000 in a little under 60 days - something that, with enough people, can be easily accomplished. Even a small donation would be greatly appreciated, and on the right side of the campaign page, you will find a listing of rewards for specific donation amounts.

So, if you feel like helping out, just check out the campaign at the above link to see your options and more info on the impact your donation will make. Also, if you wish, you can check out the main page for the Shinsedai Cinema Festival. Many thanks in advance!

Elegeia (Mark Beneria, 2009)

Hello, all. This post comes in the midst of yet another period in which I've been pondering the life and work of the great Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. A while ago, I found a short film devoted to him on Youtube that I really should have shared earlier. In any case, here it is now. Shot on and one day after December 29th, 2008 (the 22-year anniversary of Tarkovsky's death) in the Russian Orthodox Cemetery in Sainte-Geneiève-des-Bois, France (near Paris) where he is buried, Mark Beneria's Elegeia offers up a fittingly poetic tribute to the artist using patient camera movements and a solemn flute score (by Okuda Asuya) that evoke his legendary, powerful films. In a mournful tone, Beneria reflects on the greatness of Tarkovsky's work and the sad circumstances surrounding his troubled life in exile. If devoted admirers of Tarkovsky's work weren't compelled to actually visit his grave in France, they will be after seeing this film. I know I want to.

CineAction Issue #85

Hello all. Today, I come to you with a piece of news that's at least a few weeks old, but has not been mentioned here yet. It concerns the most recent issue of the Toronto-based film journal CineAction, which is published three times a year and features different essays on particular subjects and themes that are chosen for each issue. This latest one, Issue #85, had "Slow Film" as one of its topics, which prompted me to plan out and submit an essay on one of my favorite filmmakers, Tsai Ming-Liang. The finished result, entitled Slow Fuse: The Cinematic Strategies of Tsai Ming-Liang, can now be read in this latest issue and specifically focuses on the story structures of The Hole (1998), What Time Is It There (2001) and I Don't Want To Sleep Alone (2006).

The journal should be out on newsstands for the remainder of 2011 - here is its table of contents. If you're interested or a fan of the filmmaker, please check it out if you can!

Also remember that I will be appearing on the VCinema Podcast to talk about Tsai's 2003 film Goodbye, Dragon Inn sometime in the coming months.

P.S. Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!

Music News: Ultimately Always by Kemek

Hello all. Today marks the release of a new record from a music artist who I've been really digging recently - Kemek, also known as Adam Douglas. Besides teaching in South Korea and occasionally writing for the VCinema Blog, he makes music that ranges from ambient to electronic to dubstep and beyond. I've been listening to his thoroughly relaxing album Itsuka quite a bit these days, and was glad to learn of this latest release from him. If you're at all into soothing and/or experimental music, check him out!

Click on the links below to:

* Sample and purchase Ultimately Always (pay what you want) at the Architects + Heroes website.

* Visit Kemek's blog to check out more info on his other music releases.

New Trailer for Edmund Yeo's Exhalation

Hello all. I just wanted to share the release of a brand new trailer for the 2010 short film Exhalation, which was directed by Malaysian filmmaker Edmund Yeo. I've followed Edmund's remarkable progress for some time now and written about a number of his admirably crafted films, including Exhalation, The White Flower and Kingyo.

If you're in or around Tokyo in late October, you can catch it at the 24th Tokyo International Film Festival on the 23rd along with Lim Kah Wai's Magic and Loss. Check here for more information on the screening.

Plus, you can check out a short interview I did with Edmund about Exhalation over at the J-Film Pow-Wow.

Three Reasons for Satyajit Ray's The Music Room

A few nights ago, I finally got around to watching this incredible film from the great Bengali master Satyajit Ray. This vid (part of Criterion's brilliant Three Reasons ad line) does a pretty good job of illustrating some of its highlights. Actually, it's one of the more dynamic videos in the series - due in no small part to both cinematographer Subrata Mitra's dynamic, Scorsese-esque (to me, at least) camera movements and the incredible, exhilarating music edited to the images. Check it out for yourself:

Book Stuff!

Hello all. Marc here with a quick post regarding two film book-related tidbits for you. Firstly, John Berra, editor of such books as Directory of World Cinema: Japan and Directory of World Cinema: American Independent and current lecturer of film studies at China's Nanjing University, has recently released the cover image (see below) for the upcoming Directory of World Cinema: Japan 2, which he also edited. The new book will, like the first, feature reviews and essays covering various subjects in the world of Japanese cinema. Contributors include myself as well as fellow J-Film Pow-Wow writers Chris MaGee, Matthew Hardstaff and Bob Turnbull. Using an image from Tetsuya Nakashima's film Kamikaze Girls, it looks like the folks at Intellect behind the design decided to really run with the pink motif! The book will be released sometime in 2012.

Speaking of film books, there's a site that I've been meaning to plug here for some time now that covers in remarkable detail the goings on in the world of film writing. It is Toronto Film Review, run by fellow Toronto cinephile and film literature devotee David Davidson. Over at his blog, you'll find monthly editorials, book reviews, news and write-ups on film-related goings-on in Toronto and more. The easily detectable passion and incredible depth of David's pieces alone make his site worth visiting - check it out!

Late Summer Update - Shinsedai! Kiki Sugino! Federico Fellini! Satyajit Ray! Tokyo!

Hello all! After having recently spent a relaxing stint in northern Ontario cottage country and, before then, kept fairly busy with various writing projects here and there, I have quite a bit to report regarding my goings-on in the film community! Let's dive right in, shall we?

* At the end of July, the 3rd Shinsedai Cinema Festival came and went through Toronto, bringing with it a slew of great independent Japanese films, including Fumie Nishikawa's The Azemichi Road, which won the festival's Kobayashi Audience Choice Award; Koji Fukada's Hospitalité; Keita Kurosaka's Midori-ko; Ryugo Nakamura's The Catcher on the Shore and Neil Cantwell and Tim Grabham's KanZeOn. You can read a brief overview of the festival I wrote for the J-Film Pow-Wow; in addition to that, I'll have a more in-depth report posted at Midnight Eye sometime in the future.

* During the festival, I had the opportunity to interview a special guest - Kiki Sugino, who has served as an actor and producer on Hospitalité, which was the festival's opening night film; Edmund Yeo's short film Exhalation and Kah-Wai Lim's Magic and Loss. In the time I was allotted, we covered a good portion of topics regarding her career, collaborations with various directors and cultural background. Read the full interview over at the VCinema Blog!

* Meanwhile, over at Toronto Film Scene, I'm continuing my little series of pieces on the TIFF Bell Lightbox's Fellini/Felliniesque: "Dream" Double Bills film program that has been going on over the summer, tying in with its Fellini: Spectacular Obsessions exhibition. Earlier, I had written on Miranda July's pairing of Fellini's La Strada with Jane Campion's An Angel at my Table, while most recently I've submitted a piece on Deepa Mehta's selection of Nights of Cabiria with Satyajit Ray's Devi. Expect at least one more to land on the site before this fascinating program is up - and while you're at it, go check out some of these films or the ones in the Lightbox's thematically linked Days of Glory: Masterworks of Italian Neorealism program.

* Finally for now, a few days ago marked the release of a new book from Intellect that I contributed to: World Film Locations: Tokyo, which looks at some notable sites and sights throughout the city that have popped up on movie screens in productions both Japanese and otherwise. It was edited by my buddy at the J-Film Pow-Wow, Chris MaGee, and features pieces from a whole slew of writers and film folk who I'm very lucky to count among my friends and acquaintances. They consist of *deep breath* the Pow-Wow's own Matthew Hardstaff and Eric Evans, Nishikata Film Review's Catherine Munroe Hotes, VCinema's Jon Jung, Midnight Eye's Tom Mes, Directory of World Cinema: Japan editor John Berra and Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre Executive Director James Heron, among many more talented contributors. If you're interested in picking up the book, you can follow this link to Amazon.ca or check any convenient online retailer or hip bookstore near you!

UPDATE (28/08/2011): It seems that the book's release has been slightly delayed by one month - thus, it will be out on Sept. 15th.